Avondale Brewing Company welcomes George Clinton's Mothership

George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic come to Avondale Brewing Company on Wednesday, September 25. Birmingham's own Downright will open. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show set to begin at 7 p.m. Advanced tickets can be purchased at www.georgeclintonavondale.com for $25, and tickets can be purchased on the day of the show for $30. V.I.P. tickets are available for $50 and allow access to a V.I.P. room, private bathrooms, a private bar, food and one drink ticket.

I spoke to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer about his most memorable Birmingham night and his forthcoming doo-wop project, recalling his earliest days with The Parliaments.

Blake Ells for Birmingham Box Set: Your most recent studio recording, even though it has been a few years, it was largely a collection of covers - when you choose something that you want to cover, how do you choose what you will include in a collection like that?

George Clinton: It's songs that I've pretty much liked over the years or songs that have been standards over the years but people didn't understand to do them again. I've been around so long, that I see songs come every 10 or 15 years. So when I see songs that I like, I do them again; I've done a couple of them two or three times. You know, that's just the way I pick them.

I'm doing a doo-wop album now, I've done it, I'll be putting it out pretty soon, from stuff from the 50's.

BE: When you put out that record, will it be kind of like what you did with The Parliaments?

GC: Yes. I mean, I have had one or two of those, like "Goodnight, Sweetheart" and one or two of those on that George Clinton with Sly and Santana and all those guys - called "Goodnight, Sweetheart." But I'm doing one or two of those Flamingo songs - songs from the 50's on a Parliament album. But I'm doing both a concept record of new stuff and that.

BE: Will you be playing some of those new doo-wop tunes at the Birmingham show?

GC: I don't think we'll be doing those yet. It's gonna be a while before we start doing those.

BE: When do you think that record will be out?

GC: By the beginning of next year.

BE: Going back, you produced Freaky Styley by the Red Hot Chili Peppers at a point in their career when they played a legendary little club here called The Nick. What is the best story you can share about working with those guys during that time?

GC: That was fun. I mean, it was always fun working with them. Matter of fact, we did, the record you were just talking about - they did one with us on that album. It's always fun working with them, you know, since they were kids. Anthony is from Michigan, right near where I was staying at - he was in Jackson/Kalamazoo - and it was fun working with them. They came to the house, hung out. We had good times. My son from L.A., Tracy, he went to school where they went to school - at Hollywood High. But they were fun.

WHen they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just recently, and I went there with them and jammed with them a little bit. They're always fun to be with.

It was crazy back then. They've straightened out a whole lot since then. [laughs] I guess we all have.

BE: You have to settle down a little bit, don't you? I had a wild streak in me, too.

GC: Me too. [laughs] Mine lasted a long time. I've been straightened out for two and a half years. [laughs]

BE: [laughs] I hope that I can have the same fun that you've had. Do you have any stories about any memorable, or forgettable, nights that you have spent in Birmingham?

GC: Oh, Birmingham. Oh hell yeah. [laughs] When we first came out with Mothership, Bootsy [Collins] and myself, we were on the road during that time, and we had the Mothership coming to Birmingham. And I remember Bootsy had met some girl who ended up being his girlfriend later on. But she thought I was Bootsy [laughs]. When I came and he showed up with me, she had been with Bootsy, but she didn't remember what he looked like. [laughs]

When she saw me and I had on all my regalia, she thought I was him. So I pretended to be Bootsy for a couple of days. [laughs]

BE: [laughs] Did Bootsy ever find out?

GC: She didn't know the difference. She...I told Bootsy years later, but when she saw Bootsy show up, she elbowed me in the side; told me to "Shutup." So I didn't say nothing for a few years. [laughs]

BE: So that all happened in Birmingham? When she got y'all mixed up?

GC: Yeah, right. That's always been a memorable story. Because we had been coming to Birmingham off and on for a long time. But that one right there - we were just going out on the Mothership, so all those stories were memorable around that time.

BE: There was a video game when I was a kid called NBA Jam, and there was a hidden character on there named "P-Funk." How did that come about? Were you asked?

GC: Yeah. They asked me to do that, and that's where my head caught on fire and I go crazy shooting. I think Bill Clinton was in that, too. They asked me to do that, I think I've been on a few of those video games.

BE: You mentioned Bill - what kind of relationship do you have with Bill. Do y'all know each other?

GC: Well, we actually played his second Inauguration. We played and he and Hillary came up on stage and danced. They danced, we didn't know they were coming up, they picked a song called "My Baby's [expletive]." That's the song they picked to come up and dance to - they had no idea what they were dancing to.

BE: Tell me about your experience at the Gathering of the Juggalos in 2011. Is that as wild of a time as it looks?

GC: Oh yeah. They are another one that I knew from Detroit. Mike Clark who was their producer, produced the album called Dope Dogs with me. At the same time, we did another album. I was on their first album that they did. I was on that album with them, on their first album.

They were pretty straight forward then. But later on, they became really big. By 2011, they were all the way out there like Alice Cooper or KISS. With their new entourage and their fans looking like them. That was really a crazy scene. Remember, Charlie Sheen was on that show, too.

BE: What attracted you to doing film, like PCU and Good Burger?

GC: Well the first one was House Party, with Reggie Hutland. The Hutand Brothers. That would have been the first one. And after that, I did one with Keanu Reeves called The Night Before. All of them started popping up all over the place. Then PCU, one of my favorites, came about because of all the other ones I'd done. But I like doing all those.

We're getting ready to do a reality show right now. Me and my grandkids.

BE: You're living in Tallahassee now. Do you keep up with football?

GC: Not really. But everybody here is a fan of somebody.

BE: Who are the top five American rock bands of all time?

GC: American top five. American top five. That's a good way to put that.

Of course Funkadelic, first of all. Let me see. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. That's....Sly Stone is my other one. I'll have to say Aerosmith. Grateful Dead, you have to go along with them.

They probably are the biggest ones in the world period, as far as fans are concerned.